Concern over how $271 million in benefits intended for beneficiaries of the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) returned to Government’s coffers because they were “uncollected” while thousands of other needy individuals are outside the country’s only social safety net yesterday prompted calls from members of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament (PAC) for an overhaul of the facility.

Among the concerns highlighted by Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis in her report, which has been under the scrutiny of the committee in the past weeks, were the $271 million in unclaimed PATH benefits as at March 3, 2020, the increasing level of non-compliance with the Government’s health and education cash grant programmes, and the tardiness in preparing bank reconciliation statements by the labour and social security ministry.

Permanent secretary in that ministry, Colette Roberts-Risden, who in recent weeks has come under fire for aspects of the report, yesterday said it was only through an internal audit conducted last year that it was brought to her attention that the unclaimed monies were not being recalled.

“PATH operates on a rule where, if, after two payments, it is discovered that there was no collection then no further payments would be prepared until an investigation was done to find out why this was so,” she said.

“What the audit found out was that when the underutilisation reports would come, the team would wait on an investigation to be done to find out what was happening with the family, but that was not the rule of the programme… So I will admit that there was a lapse in the procedure; those monies did not earn interest. When it was brought to my attention the instruction was given to recall the funds and pay them over into the consolidated fund,” she told the committee.

Roberts-Risden said the explanations as to why 1,823 people did not claim their funds could range from them losing their card to forgetting their personal identification number. She said the ministry intends to, in another month or two, promote a new payment method.

“We are looking at possible direct deposits,” she told the committee.

In the meantime, she said a shortage of social workers also hampers the ministry’s efforts to investigate why people fail to collect.

“I will be the first to admit that in terms of social workers we do not have the amount; right now we have one social worker to 1,000 persons. It’s the same social workers out there during COVID, during flooding, a fire, hurricane, the same social workers who have to go out there and do investigations,” she noted.

That, however, was small comfort to the committee, which comprises both first-time Members of Parliament and veterans.

“It would appear to me that with one social worker to 1,000 persons the system is set up to fail. It’s no wonder Members of Parliament are being bombarded in our constituencies with regards to the programme being unfair; they are being dropped off,” said Government member Dwight Sibblies.

“I have a lady in my constituency who is in her 70s, she and her boss went to the parish office and, unfortunately, her boss got on and she, who is the helper, did not get on, And [now] she sees the system as a set-up, and not for poor people,” he said.

“I see you are saying you are going to be rolling out another payment methodology, but it does not seem to be the methodology that is the problem, it seems the PATH needs to be rethink (sic),” Sibblies added.

Government member Heroy Clarke also weighed in: “It is very hard, it gets emotional at times. I am reflecting on people who come to the office on a daily basis asking just for the bus fare. It is not just that they are dunce, or they don’t want to go to school, it is that they can’t afford it… When I hear of $270 million going back to the consolidated fund I say ‘Jesus, have mercy’. It is heart-rending.”

Committee Chairman Julian Robinson said, “There are just too many needy people who want to get on who cannot.”

“When people come to me about PATH I tell them it is almost like the lottery…We end up getting the cussing when people can’t get on the programme,” he pointed out.

Roberts-Risden said it was time for the programme, which has been in existence for over 19 years, to be reviewed.

“It is timely, it is something the team has started to do. We have to do a massive, massive reverification exercise. We are going to need the support of the MPs,” she said.